Grandma's Coming to Me

I told Jake that Grandma was coming. He said so enthusiastically," Grandma's coming to me? Jacob's house?"It was fun to have the answer to be yes. Ever since we came my parent's have been trying to find a time to squeak into their schedule, a trip to visit. My Dad wasn't able to make it but after my mom called to say she bought tickets, I hung up the phone, told Seth my mom was coming, and then I started crying. Because I was happy. We have lived away from our families for a long time, not because we don't love them or want to be with them, but because the Lord has put us else where. But its hard to have your kids live away from Grandparents, mostly because you want them to see every little miracle, every little trick, or witness first hand the tantrums, of your children. So I was so excited to have my mom come to experience Hawaii with us. Plus she is super mom. My apartment has never been so clean for some many consecutive days. And without planning it, I was very sick, and she totally took over when I felt like I was going to die. I think I napped every day she was here. I felt bad after being so sick and apologized that this wasn't the greatest vacation. She said she didn't need another vacation. I laughed. She came to help and help she did. I love that women. 

She came in on a 6 a.m. flight and as we drove back we capture this beautiful picture of China man's hat. 

We even caught the sunrise with the rain. I was so beautiful. 

The day was typical North Shore weather. 80 degrees with a chance of rain showers and sun. Sure enough, we went to lunch a famous Ted's Bakery, and it rained, and then the sun came out. I took my mom a minute to adjust to none of my children wearing shoes anywhere and Jake barely wearing anything.

We got to Turtle Bay to snorkel and the skies opened and it poured rain. But then it cleared and we all jumped in. Seth, Jake, and Jayne made their awesome sand volcanoes.

The next day we hiked to Waimae Falls with my mom. She is such a sport. She loves to hike, but she has a sore foot. She didn't complain even though I know it was hurting her. 

We played some Hawaiian bowling at the games area. Grandma said she wasn't very good at it.

We made it to the falls and my mom hopped in. It was runny high, so they wouldn't let the kids in and I wasn't feeling to well, so she was our representative. 

Jayne took these pictures of the momma peacock and her babies. She wanted me to put them on the blog as well. Enjoy!

The next day we were able to meet up with the Hughes family and took my mom to our favorite beach-Castles. My mom was a bit intimidated by the waves, especially to see the kids just go jump in. I too was intimidated when I first came, but since I have been able to get to know the ocean, I am much more at ease now. In fact, I love it and I will be sad to not live so near to it. My mom was even brave enough to come out and boogie board with us. She held on to the boogie board and I gave her a push to catch a wave (a pretty big one too) and she totally caught it and rode it all the way into the shore. She raised her hand and cheered, as did we, and then she said she thought she should quit while she was ahead. It was great. 

Here's Sam practicing his fireknife.

I absolutely live this picture of this boy. I posted it on Facebook and this is what I wrote:

"Sometimes you capture a little piece of heaven. For an 11 yr old boy does it get much better than a surf board and a fireknife? I actually don't think he really understands what he's got here, but I hope as he looks back he will see to amazing unique experience this has been."

I'd like to make him a poster of this picture when we get home!

Here's Grandma and the kids enjoying Friday night movie night! She's such a good sport. I think they watched High School Musical. Popcorn, movie, and Grandma, doesn't get much better than this. Check out Sam with his fire stick. Ha.